14 Things I Think I Think About Social Media

This is a video interview that my friend Mike Stelzner of Social Media Examiner did with me a few weeks ago. Other than the extraordinarily unflattering camera angle, it turned out pretty well (especially the super cool SME opening animation) 14 key points are below:

What you’re doing on Twitter isn’t a social media strategy, it’s a tools strategy.

The only thing that’s really certain, is that eventually the online tools will change.

I don’t believe Twitter and Facebook will always dominate.

If you have a tools-focused strategy, you don’t really have a strategy.

First, figure out how you’re going to be social, and then worry about how you’re going to do social.

Create a social media steering group (cross-functional) for your company.

Social media is fueled by passion, and too many companies try to take elements of their company that aren’t passion-worthy, and attempt to build a social media program around it.

Content creation and content marketing will continue to allow companies to capitalize on the fact that every customer is now a reporter.

Place making social media (Foursquare, Gowalla, et al) will continue to gain traction over the next 18 months. These services are in many ways would Twitter was originally, with another layer of loyalty and rewards built in. The reviews business will be transformed by geo-location.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and yet video content continues to be under-leveraged.

The metrics available on Facebook are in many ways better than you can get from Google Analytics.

Companies are starting to think of Facebook as a natural piece of the conversion funnel, not just as a free-standing silo. Facebook fan pages are email newsletters 2.0

Make sure you’re tying together your email program and your social media program.